What this is about: Watching all of the anime shows so you don’t have to! For more information about me and my reviews, click here for details on what I am reviewing.

Series Premise: Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki, or “Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky” is a two-part Original Video Animation series that is based on a video game of the same name. The series is a high-fantasy series set in the country named Liberl; as the mysterious power of Orbments is harnessed, the technological revolution has led to conflict. The first episode of this OVA special was released in October 2011, the second episode in January 2012.

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My Impressions: Sorry I’ve been distracted with other hobbies, so my reviews have been falling further behind. But as I’ve expressed elsewhere, I really don’t care very much how far behind I am, I’m going to take my own sweet time at this, because rushing it would lessen the enjoyment. There’s plenty of blogs that put out reviews within the same week as when the show aired…this isn’t one of them.

But even that being said, a little bit of brevity can’t hurt to get the ball rolling, so I’m spending less time typing and more time watching.

So, cutting to the quick: I felt like I was thrown into the middle of the story around chapter 37 with the understanding that I was supposed to know what was going on. If the above uh, “summary” sounds jumbled and confusing, that is because I didn’t know what the hell was going on. It felt like they were cramming waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much (like the ENTIRE VIDEO GAMEPLAY) into a forty-minute episode.

This is most definitely NOT aimed at someone like me — it is aimed pretty clearly at people who are very familiar with the video game, and that’s about it. You start with a cast of characters that the viewer is supposed to know beforehand, centered around a young, upstart warrior girl named Estelle with is as annoying cheerful as she is incompetent (you know the type: the “hero” whose enthusiasm far exceeds her talents). She is juxtaposed by her star-crossed friend/would-be-lover (I think?) Joshua: the dark, brooding rebel type who Estelle is searching earnestly for.

The story starts off with some sort of fight, although it’s not really explained who is fighting what, or why. It then slows down as they form a guild group to go on a special mission, followed by a strangely incongruous hot springs bath scene that seems to serve little purpose other than to get all the girls nekkid. Then they’re off on their quest, followed by lots more fighting, and by this point my brain is sort of turned off because I was already lost at Scene One and by this point I don’t care.

This reminded me a great deal of another show I watched about two years ago, Tales of Symphonia, which was also based on a fantasy world video game. I was just as confused after watching the first episode, but at least there was more of an excuse, since I was jumping into the a series that had previously-aired episodes. But for Sora no Kiseki, there’s no such excuse.

I gotta say one thing, though — it sure was pretty to watch, good designs and well animated. (It’s from the same group that animated .hack//Quantum, which sort of blew me away. But it takes much more than purty pictures to save a show. It’s a shame such talent was wasted on this jumbled mess.

“… so yeah. If you played Eiyuu Densetsu: go ahead and watch it. This OVA is entirely dedicated to pleasing you. If you haven’t though, it’s a whole different story. This movie ultimately boils down to an abridged version of the TV-series, but it doesn’t bother to introduce anything. It refuses to explain anything. Who are these characters? Why are they on this journey? Why is all this important to them? The explanations that are there all assume that you know these things.” – Star Crossed Anime Blog

“All-in-all, the first volume 1 of Sora no Kiseki was definitely not much of a letdown as I first believed it would be. It is surely not one the best game adaptions, however it was enjoyable and assorted moderately well.” – Kaminari Anime

“Meh…Perhaps fans of the game will enjoy it more, but be aware that if you’re not bringing in attachment to this from somewhere else, this ain’t going to make you care about anything going on. Very nice fight regardless though.” – Tenka Seiha